Branch Davidians

The Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists was an Adventist Christian denomination that was founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden as the result of a split with the Shepherd's Rod group. The Davidians supported a reform of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and they believed that they were the only righteous Adventist group. The movement came to be led by David Koresh in the late 1980s, and he and his followers abandoned several Davidian teachings. The Koreshians took over the Mount Carmel compound in Waco, Texas following a series of shootouts between Roden and Koresh's factions, and the ATF and the US National Guard laid siege to the compound in 1993 after they discovered that the Davidians were armed and violent. After a 51-day standoff, the ATF raided the compound, leading to the deaths of four ATF agents, as well as those of Koresh and 82 of his followers. The movement declined to just 12 followers by 2012, living in Elk, Texas.